THERE’S a bloke on stage wearing a hat that could quite easily scoop up half the audience and comfortably sail us across the Atlantic.

THERE’S a bloke on stage wearing a hat that could quite easily scoop up half the audience and comfortably sail us across the Atlantic.

And when I say bloke, I mean dame, and when I say dame I mean Queen Passionella, aka Ceri Dupree – international female impersonator and walking (tottering actually) advert for the habitual wearing of sequins and feathers.

We are gathered on a Sunday lunchtime to witness the beginning of the final week of Sleeping Beauty at the New Theatre in Cardiff and my daughter Elinor is so enraptured she’s ignoring the usually hypnotic powers of the chocolate being waved in front of her face and instead is lost in her own heightened state of euphoria at this dazzling parade.

Now, going to see pantomime in January may be seen by some as tantamount to eating Easter eggs on Christmas Day, but this slightly disjointed quirk of the calendar is actually acting as a public service for those who openly wept as they put away their festive decorations.

We should therefore thank the cast, crew and venue for still being around as January – let us not forget the most depressing month – blows through with all the welcome of a sub zero wind chill.

Let’s face it we all need a grin and tonic, a resounding pick me up come New Year, if only to save us from the par-baked resolutions and portly people looking longingly through the window at Greggs while munching sadly on a lettuce leaf.

So depressive thoughts neatly side-stepped we threw ourselves into the maddening throng – and that’s where I couldn’t help doing that thing that all parents do; one thought I’d promised myself I would never have. I looked at my child while thinking ‘it wasn’t the same in my day.’

It’s not as if I haven’t been to a panto before (oh yes you have, oh know you haven’t – let’s just get that little preamble out the way first shall we) but this particular pantomime brought home to me how times have changed.

Not only did our man, er woman, er Queen, Ceri Dupree have more costumes changes than Lady Gaga in a fancy dress shop, but there were special effects, pyrotechnics, and even 3D – which was hugely impressive, despite having spiders, snakes and all manner of terrifying objects dangling menacingly mere inches from our faces.

Elinor reacted well to the frightening effects, she threw her 3D glasses off, buried her head in her mummy’s shoulder and started crying. Meanwhile the screams of the other kids in the audience indicated they too were also undergoing some sort of collective breakdown.

Nevertheless, it was all sorts of fun despite the star of the show Joe Pasquale missing from that day’s line up. He was off proving that he’s some kind of skating Superman with a squeaky voice by competing in the slippery Strictly Come Dancing that is ITV’s Dancing On Ice.

Although he was replaced by a more than able deputy – Blue Peter presenter Barney Harwood, who was an impudent treat, hamming it up as if his life depended on it while wowing the crowd with some eye-popping asides, which included a flying motorbike that had us all open mouthed as it magically hovered over the stalls.

So all in all an action-packed afternoon of thrill and spills for all ages, but also affirmation from the nagging voice in my head commenting on my youth. Yes, it’s behind you!

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